Alabama Department of Archives and History

Alabama Constitutional Officers

Frank Newsum Julian

Secretary of State: 1907-1910

Of Tuscumbia, was born June 18, 1872, in that town, and was the
son of William Reese and Elizabeth Melissa (Croxton) Julian, and the grandson of George Irvin and
Martha Lavinia (Reese) Julian, and of Elijah and Eleanor Johnson (Scott) Croxton, the latter couple
living in S. C. The Croxtons were descended from John Croxton, an Irish peer; while Mrs. E. J.
Croxton was a first cousin of Gen. Winfield Scott. The father, Wm. R. Julian, was born near Moulton,
in Lawrence County; served with gallantry in the Mexican War under Col. Jefferson Davis, was the
first soldier over the walls of Monterey and was promoted to a sergeantcy; commissioned as
lieutenant of artillery by A. B. Moore, Governor of the "Independent State of Alabama," Jan. 31,
1861; entered the cavalry branch of the service and was under Generals Forrest and Roddy; and was
the first sheriff of Colbert County, to which office he was twice re-elected. Frank Julian was educated
in the common schools.

In May, 1885, when only thirteen years of age, he entered the printing office
of the North Alabamian, at that time owned by Capt. A. H. Keller, father of Helen Keller, where
he remained until 1889. After three years of clerical work he spent a year, 1892, on the St. Louis
Post Dispatch; returned to weekly newspaper work in 1893, in which business he has since engaged.
Mr. Julian early took an interest in political affairs, serving six years as secretary of the Democratic
Executive Committee of Colbert County; was clerk of the committee on corporations, Alabama
Legislature, 1896-97; elected assistant clerk of the House of Representatives, 1898, re-elected for
extra session of 1899, and for the regular session of 1900-01; elected secretary of the Constitutional
Convention of Alabama, 1901; and elected clerk of the House of Representatives, 1903. In 1902 he
was defeated for nomination as Secretary of State, but in 1906 he was successful.

He was a
Presbyterian. He was a member of the United Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Woodmen of the
World, and the Knights of Maccabees. At Tuscumbia, Dec. 18, 1895, he was married to Eva
Josephine, daughter of Hugh J. and Mary E. (Smith) Stephenson, of Leighton, Ala.